A year of disasters: Top ten local stories of 2013

Saturday

Dec 28, 2013 at 1:00 PM

In the spring, our communities faced historic flooding in several central Illinois counties. Then came Nov. 17 when an EF-4 tornado destroyed block after block in the city of Washington, damaged several other communities and took two lives.

The year 2013 will be remembered as the year of disasters.

In the spring, our communities faced historic flooding in several central Illinois counties. Then came Nov. 17 when an EF-4 tornado destroyed block after block in the city of Washington, damaged several other communities and took two lives.

In perspective, those two experiences make the rest of the year's events seem minor. But it was a busy year.

Residents were frightened by brazen home invasions; the Riverfront Museum made it through the first year — with a few bruises along the way; two of the city's hospitals merged; Caterpillar Inc. made some painful adjustments; Peoria School District 150 debated selling Peoria Stadium; and we sadly saw the loss of some key leaders.

Here is our list of top 10 stories for 2013 as selected by Journal Star newsroom.

1. Tornado

On Nov. 17, a pair of twisters tore through Pekin, East Peoria, Washington and rural Roanoke leaving behind massive destruction and the loss of two lives in Washington.

What began as an unusually warm day with temperatures in the 60s, turned deadly when the warm humid air collided with a cold front causing thunderstorms that spawned tornadoes.

Fortunately for central Illinois, meteorologists foresaw the storms and issued warnings, tornado sirens wailed and television and radio stations issued reports alerting residents to find safe shelter — all of which greatly limited the loss of life.

However, those warnings could not stop the destruction. The EF-4 tornado did the greatest damage in Washington where entire neighborhoods were demolished. The community has more than 1,000 homes destroyed. Residents in East Peoria, Pekin and Roanoke also had damaged and destroyed homes. Damage estimates for the tornado is expected to be in the millions.

In the following weeks central Illinois witnessed an onslaught of kindness and compassion, not just locally, but from all over. Help has come by way of donations, food, clothing, Christmas toys and volunteers streaming to the community to help with the destruction. The fund-raisers and donations continue as the nation helps rebuild our communities.

2. Flood

A wetter than normal winter, record snowfall in late March and sizable rainstorms in April were more than the Illinois River, streams and creeks could contain, causing historic flooding throughout central Illinois.

The Illinois River crested at 29.35 feet on April 23, an all-time record. To protect the Downtown, the city coordinated the building of a 4-foot-high, 1,200-foot-long barrier in the middle of Water Street. The wall held and the buildings behind it were spared.

Some homeowners in Roanoke, London Mills, Edwards, Rome, Mossville, Chillicothe, Spring Bay and other communities had to evacuate their water-filled homes. A mud slide in East Peoria took out the backyards of three homes, making them uninhabitable.

In Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Marshall and Fulton counties, government bodies applied for an estimated $14.5 million in federal assistance for expenses to fight the floodwaters.

3. Home invasions

They snuck into homes in the middle of the night through unlocked doors, tied up sleeping residents at gunpoint and spent hours ransacking the houses, loading up valuables into cars that were then stolen and abandoned.

At least five times from July through November, a group of brazen robbers struck, mostly in affluent areas in Northwest Peoria, spreading fear of the next attack.

Peoria police established a task force to investigate the crimes. Residents reported signs of break-ins and suspicious vehicles in their neighborhoods. Home invasion attempts — real or imagined — drew the immediate attention of authorities.

But it was a Peoria patrolman's investigation of a domestic situation and a tip called in to CrimeStoppers that resulted in arrests that have curtailed the midnight robberies.

Perry Rosetto, 43, was the first suspect taken into custody a few days before Thanksgiving. Four other suspects were arrested the next day, though only two have been charged in connection with the case: Blair Johnson, 20, and Stefan Crayton, 19.

Rosetto, Johnson and Crayton have been charged with only one of the five home invasions.

4. Caterpillar sales dip in 2013

The year 2013 was a tough one for Caterpillar Inc. Sales slipped for 11 consecutive months through November. In the first nine months of 2013, Caterpillar's revenues dropped by 17 percent from the previous year to $41.2 billion.

The demand for mining equipment dipped at a time when Caterpillar had invested heavily in the mining sector.

It was a year that saw Caterpillar deal with rising inventories of unsold equipment, weak economic conditions and a slowdown of the Chinese economy, noteworthy because Caterpillar maintains 23 manufacturing facilities in that country.

Central Illinois Caterpillar production plants underwent rolling layoffs at the beginning of the year. In October, Caterpillar sent out additional layoff notifications to an undisclosed number of employees in the Peoria area.

The company's plants in Decatur and South Milwaukee also saw reductions in 2013.

5. Loss of leaders

Early in 2013, Peoria lost one of its best known mayors and city supporters with the death of Jim Maloof. Then last summer saw the death of Pete Vonachen, businessman and community supporter, and long-time city councilman Gary Sandberg.

Maloof's crowning achievement was his founding and support of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Midwest Affiliate. He also found time to run businesses, serve as Peoria mayor for 12 years, serve on a number of business, civic and social groups and lead the Journal Star Christmas sing for four decades.

Restaurateur, veteran, hotelier, baseball team owner, businessman and avid supporter of Peoria, Vonachen left a gigantic imprint on central Illinois. Along with his business ventures including Vonachen's Old Place, he is known for bringing minor-league baseball to Peoria with the Peoria Chiefs. Through the years, Vonachen served the city by volunteering on countless boards and organizations.

Serving 24 years on the Peoria City Council, Sandberg was the senior member of the group and often the lone dissenter on council votes. He was known for his eccentricities including bringing a macaw to a council meeting, but also adamantly representing the people of the city with his basic services' agenda on the council.

6. Don't Shoot

The second year of an anti-gun violence initiative patterned after a program adopted by other cities around the country met mixed results — periods of relative calm were punctuated by stretches of explosive street violence.

Twice in 2013 — in April and September — three people were killed in a matter of days in connected incidents. When law enforcement leaders convened to mark the one-year anniversary of Don't Shoot Peoria at the end of September, at least one person had been shot every day in the week leading up to the event.

Those leaders promised changes at the time: more "call-ins" — the meetings with alleged gang members at the center of the program — and more opportunities for members of the community to get involved.

One such call-in was held in October, after a second round of federal conspiracy indictments of alleged members of the Zone 4 street gang. The community outreach effort, Peoria Community Against Violence (PCAV), however, has yet to emerge.

7. Trial moved to Peoria

The pictures were horrible and the testimony even more graphic as the Peoria County Courthouse was the scene of a monthlong trial in May into the deaths of five rural Logan County residents and the near slaying of a 3-year-old girl.

A Peoria County jury listened to evidence for a month but took only five hours to find Christopher Harris guilty of beating Rick and Ruth Gee to death with a tire iron, along with three of their children: Justina Constant, 16; Dillen Constant, 14; and Austin Gee, 11. Tabitha Gee, then 3, survived multiple blows to her head.

Harris, 34, was related to the Gees by marriage and told jurors that Dillen Constant, not him, brutally murdered the family. However, the gruesome testimony which showed the Gees' Beason home covered with blood and bodies lying where they fell, was too overwhelming.

The trial was moved from Logan County due to pretrial publicity and was the first in the courthouse' history to allow live blogging from inside a courtroom.

Harris was later sentenced to multiple life terms for the slaying. He continued to maintain his innocence.

8. Hospital merger

In a surprise twist, financially beleaguered Proctor Hospital affiliated with UnityPoint Health-Methodist in November, just months after negotiations broke down to sell major assets, such as physicians' practices and Proctor First Care Centers, to OSF Healthcare System.

Peoria's smallest hospital, founded in 1882, got a new name — UnityPoint Health-Proctor — and a new CEO. Officials described the arrangement as one hospital with two campuses and one management team, led by Methodist CEO Debbie Simon. The merger between Proctor and Methodist, Peoria's second largest hospital, increased the clout of Iowa-based UnityPoint Health in a market dominated by OSF Healthcare System.

Independent, stand-alone hospitals are becoming rare as hospitals strive to meet the demands of a changing health care market. Methodist joined the UnityPoint Health system in 2011, and OSF Healthcare has steadily added area hospitals to its system.

Peoria's two UnityPoint-Health facilities have about 4,000 employees and serve more than 100,000 patients through their physicians' practices. The affiliation also brought Proctor's Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery and Hult Center for Healthy Living into the UnityPoint Health system.

9. Peoria Stadium

For an update on the fate of Peoria Stadium, check again in March.

That's when a sales-tax increase for school facilities is to be on Peoria County election ballots. Peoria School District 150 officials suggested there won't be a decision about the fate of the 82-acre stadium site until referendum results are known.

The tax could provide money to renovate Peoria Stadium, which has fallen into disrepair.

In spring 2013, a proposal surfaced to sell the District 150 property along War Memorial Drive to Walmart Stores Inc. Proceeds from a sale could have been used to develop outdoor athletics facilities at Manual Academy and Peoria High School, the stadium's primary tenants.

Public outcry regarding a sale was swift and sure in opposition.

"That has been a green space for as long as any of us can remember," 3rd District City Councilman Tim Riggenbach said. "Are we going to be the ones who give that up?"

10. Riverfront Museum

The Riverfront Museum's first year saw some growing pains such as lower-than-expected attendance, less revenue and the ousting of its CEO. Officials overseeing the facility remain upbeat about the museum's long-term prospects and made some changes to the facility's operations including a new leader. Sam Gappmayer, former president of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, was appointed museum CEO in December replacing Jim Richerson. Other changes include adding beer and wine sales for evening shows at the Giant Screen Theater, offering combined ticket options with the museum and theater and better utilization of the facility's outdoor space.